Andrew Eisen plays a little game called Let's Try to Connect to SimCity and Play the Game. It's a game that was sweeping the nation this week, but unlike the hula-hoop or baseball, this week's American pastime was not that much fun. Check out Andrew's reenactment of what a typical SimCity player probably went through this week.

Well, the good news is that EA's official Twitter for its digital distribution service Origin has confirmed that you will not be banned if you ask for a refund on your purchase of SimCity in light of the fact that you probably can't play it.

It's been a pretty rough day for both customers who bought SimCity and the developers trying everything under the sun to get it working at full capacity. While EA has been trying to solve the problem and get gamers playing the game, some fans have been very vocal about how the game's DRM has broken it beyond repair.

In a cheeky promotion to support its SimCity back catalog title, Good Old Games takes a slight dig at the problems associated with the new SimCity game during its launch. In a tweet offering an alternative to the trials and tribulations of connecting to EA servers, GOG says that it has a SimCity game that you won't have any trouble playing.

As is often the case with games that rely heavily on "always online" schemes, EA's SimCity had a bit of trouble today as it officially launched servers for the latest entry in the popular city building simulation. EA's biggest problem seems to be related to its digital distribution platform Origin, which has struggled to keep up with fans' demand to buy and play the game on launch day. Users have encountered a number of problems today including trouble downloading their digitally purchased copies and problems with unlocking physical copies of the game.

Diablo 3 for the PS3 and PS4 will not feature cross-platform play but it will include an offline mode for PS3 and PS4 players. PC players cannot play the game without being connected to Battle.net - even when playing single-player. The clarification on cross-platform play was made by the game's community manager Vaeflare on the Battle.net forums.

In an interview with MCV Ubisoft’s worldwide Uplay director Stephanie Perotti acknowledges that the company doesn't have the best relationship with the PC gaming community because of past issues (namely its strong support for "always on DRM" in several of its major PC titles), but that the company is listening to the feedback and reacting accordingly - most notably getting rid of its much-hated DRM-scheme.

The PlayStation 4 will not require an internet connection, though it is likely that if you want to take advantage of some of its core features and frequent updates you'll need a connection at some point. According to Eurogamer Sony says that, while you may want to keep your console connected to the internet to take advantage of the system's new features, it is not a requirement.

It's not an evil alliance, but some (those that don't like Uplay and Origin) might view it that way. It looks like Uplay and Origin are doing a little foreign exchange action, with Ubisoft's digital distribution platform getting select EA titles and EA's digital distribution platform getting games from Ubisoft. Ubisoft's Uplay service is also offering games from other third-party publishers including Warner Bros., Focus Home Interactive, Freebird Games, Paradox Interactive, Telltale Games and more.

This week hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about fresh Xbox 720 rumors, new game bills in America, the releases cycle of the Ouya, and last week's GamePolitics Poll. All this and more awaits in Episode 40. Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 40 (1 hour) 55.5 MB.

Mike Blank, EA's Vice President, Production, Design, and Engineering for Origin, announced on EA's Blog the official launch of the Mac OS X client for its digital distribution platform. The OS X version of Origin offers dual-platform play for select EA games (that are available on both PC and Mac) for those gamers that use both platforms.

If you follow me on Twitter, you're probably aware that I can'tstand Activision's Skylanders games or Disney's upcoming Disney Infinity. Both games require you to buy a bunch of figurines to unlock stuff in the game you already paid full price for. This is an extension of that "on-disc DLC" stuff that many have been

You may remember that the development team behind the upcoming SimCity game held a Reddit AMA, and that the community there gave them a hard time for making the game use a DRM scheme that required players to be always connected to the Internet even when they are playing the single-player portion of the game.

The developers at EA Maxis decided on Friday that it would be a good idea to participate in an AMA ("ask me anything") discussion thread on Reddit. The discussion quickly turned from a discussion about the gameplay in the next SimCity game to questions about the company's planned DRM scheme. The next SimCity game will require users to be "always connected" when playing multiplayer or single-player and will also save game progress online.

No matter what you think of Uplay (PC gamers know it as a future digital distribution platform and as facilitator of horrible always-on DRM masquerading as something else - particularly for PC gamers), what Ubisoft is trying to do with it on Wii U is interesting because it adds a number of features to its games on the platform.

In Episode 31 of the Super Podcast Action Committee hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discuss if the gender and race of a main character matters, the Humble THQ Bundle, the importance of play-testing, more Uplay woes, DRM, and other forms of tomfoolery. Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 31 (1 hour, 14 minutes) 68 MB.

Ubisoft is apologizing to Far Cry 3 players for issues with the company's Uplay online gaming service. Some players have reported that they were unable to play the game because of Uplay server issues. Apparently setting the Uplay client to offline mode allows players to play part of the game, according to Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

No doubt you have already heard that Valve co-founder and top executive Gabe Newell and Mojang co-founder Markus Persson think that Windows 8 is horrible for PC gamers and game developers because it uses a closed app store approach to presenting software to customers. Now Croteam's chief technical offer Alen Ladavac has added his two cents to the discussion. The CTO for the company behind the Serious Sam series said in a recent Steam Community forum post that Gabe Newell was right.

If you thought you could play an Electronic Arts game on Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console without having an account on its Origin network then you are so very sadly mistaken. A change in EA's privacy policy reveals that Wii U users who want to play Wii U games online will need to have an Origin account and a "Nintendo Network ID." Of course, this also means that - by signing up for an Origin account - you give EA permission to collect your email address, Mii information, friend list, country, language, and date of birth.

The popular DRM-free digital distribution platform Good Old Games, finally supports the Mac OS operating system - though not every game in its catalog is available at this time. GOG is currently offering 50 games on OS X including Syndicate and Wing Commander 1 & 2. More Mac-compatible titles will be released in the future on an on-going basis.

Earlier in the month Ubisoft announced that it would turn its Uplay game community hub into a digital distribution platform, and with last week's news that it had toned down its DRM scheme for PC releases, today's news is really a no brainer. The company said today that - at some point - it would like to bring third-party titles to the platform.

Rights groups are turning up the rhetoric on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), claiming that the new treaty being negotiated by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and other countries in the Pacific Rim will bring back controversial copyright enforcement provisions pushed by some US policymakers in recent bills and treaties such as ACTA, SOPA and PIPA.

We forgot to mention this yesterday: The latest Humble Bundle - Humble Bundle for Android 3 - has added four new games into the mix: Anomaly: Warzone Earth, EDGE, Osmos, and World of Goo. All four of these games were in the very first Humble Android Bundle so if you didn't get in on the ground floor of that one, consider this an official do-over. As always games in the bundle are DRM-free and you can pay what you want for them. The bonus games require a bit more of a commitment.

In Episode 16 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, Andrew Eisen and James Fudge (filling in for E. Zachary Knight, who had to take a well-deserved time-out to fawn over a new addition to his family this week) talk about Mugen Souls, Resident Evil 5, the chaos of OnLive, the irony of Ubisoft turning Uplay into a digital distribution platform, and the controversy over "girlfriends" and Borderlands 2. Download Episode 16 here: SuperPAC Episode 16 (1 Hour, 12 Minutes).

Shout box

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm

Andrew Eisen: Huh. I guess I'll have to check out a Let's Play to get a sense of the game.08/01/2015 - 5:47pm

Mattsworkname: It did, I found the idea of exploring a world at it's end, exploring the abandoned city of a disappeared alien race and the planets various knooks and crannies intriqued me.08/01/2015 - 5:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Did it appeal to you? If so, what did you find appealing?08/01/2015 - 5:43pm

Mattsworkname: Its an interesting concept, but it's not gonna appeal to everyone thats for sure,08/01/2015 - 5:40pm

Andrew Eisen: That sounds horrifically boring. Doesn't sound like an interesting use of its time dilation premise either. 08/01/2015 - 5:36pm

Mattsworkname: an observer , seeing this sorta frozen world and being able to explore without any restriction other then time. no enimes, no threats, just the chance to explore08/01/2015 - 5:34pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: I meant lifeless planet, Time frame is an exploration game. Your dropped onto a world which is gonna be hit by a metor in 10 seconds, but due to time dilation ,you actually have ten minutes, so you can explore the world, in it's last moments, as08/01/2015 - 5:32pm